Maria Sharapova Is Using Her Sun-Soaking Years on the Court to Encourage Skin Cancer Prevention

Maria Sharapova has a secret weapon in her tennis training regimen: sunscreen. Considering that the stunning sports star has been playing on sunny tennis courts since she was a young girl, the sun protectant is one of the main beauty products she swears by to keep her skin in tip-top shape.

During a private shoot for her beauty company Supergoop earlier this summer inside Smashbox Studios in Culver City, Calif., the blonde bombshell was glowing as she talked to InStyle about just that, while rocking a “fun, fresh” printed navy A.L.C. dress and black, strappy Balenciaga sandals for the occasion. “Sunscreen just became a natural part of my lifestyle,” Sharapova said. “I trained from early hours of 7 a.m. until the afternoon, and there was always a big jug of sunscreen next to the court. It just became quite educational for me.”

That education turned into a passion for skin care and skin cancer prevention, leading Maria to become co-owner of Supergoop in April 2014. Now that the company has gained a legion of followers obsessed with the light texture of their sunscreen, the brand is branching out with Project Black Dot Initiative, which will tackle issues surrounding sunscreen use and skin cancer prevention.

“One of the mistakes that people make is they protect their skin only in the summer months,” Maria added. “Skin care is twelve months out of the year.” For her own sun protection, Maria loves wearing Supergoop’s City Sunscreen Serum ($42; supergoop.com) when she’s away from the tennis court and the Everyday Sunscreen ($10 to $48; supergoop.com) when she’s training. She also reapplies the sunscreen every two hours and encourages everyone else, including her loved ones, to do the same.

“Maria came to me and said, 'How can we get this out on a bigger scale?'” Supergoop CEO Holly Thaggard (above, left) told us. “We’re really excited to get that message out to the rest of America—that [sun protection] can be a part of your regimen that’s very easy, and [skin cancer] is one of those cancers that’s preventable, which is awesome.”